Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter
Michael Hylton (left), Solicitor General, whispers to Robert Pickersgill, Minister of Transport and Works, at a press conference held at the Ministry of Transport and Works on Maxfield Avenue, St. Andrew, yesterday. The press conference was called to discuss the Judicial Review Court ruling on the Portmore leg of Highway 2000. - RUDOLPH BROWN/CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER
PORTMORE RESIDENTS will be forced to use the Mandela Highway as an alternative route to the Portmore leg of Highway 2000 following yesterday's ruling of the Judicial Review Court.
Miss Justice Gloria Smith, in handing down her decision found that the Minister of Transport and Works, did not act unlawfully in designating the Portmore Causeway as a toll road because there was an alternative route in the same area which was accessible to vehicular and other traffic as required under the Toll Roads Act.
The Portmore Citizens Advisory Council and the Portmore Joint Citizens Association had brought the motion seeking declarations that the minister breached the Toll Roads Act because the alternative route was not in the same area where the toll road was.
They had applied for an order quashing the designation of the Toll Roads (Designation of Highway 2000 Phase 1) Order 2000 and a declaration that the Mandela Highway which is designated as the alternative route , was not a lawful route but they were not successful.
SIX WEEKS TO FILE APPEAL
Attorney-at-law Candis Hamilton, one of the lawyers who appeared with Lord Anthony Gifford, Q.C., for the claimants, told The Gleaner yesterday that the judge had promised that her written judgment would be ready today. She said the claimants had six weeks in which to file an appeal and, therefore, the first step would be to review the judgment.
The residents said that it was only in March this year that they were aware that Mandela Highway was going to be the alternative route and that was the reason for the delay in bringing the claim.
The judge, in interpreting the Toll Roads Act and the claimants contention that the alternative route must be in the same area as the toll road, said each occasion must be looked at within all the circumstances by the minister in designating an alternative route. The judge said it was the court's considered view that the minister chose the most reasonable route. "The Portmore Causeway and the Mandela Highway are accepted as being in the same area for the purposes of the order and by extension the Toll Roads Act," the judge held.
The judge, in handing down her decision, upheld legal arguments by Michael Hylton, Q.C., Solicitor General, Patrick Foster, Deputy Solicitor General, Candace Rochester and Analiesa Lindsay that the minister did not act unlawfully in designating the toll road because there was an alternative route in the same area which was accessible to vehicular and other traffic as required under the Toll Roads Act."
The judge found that there was no unlawful action in the designation of the alternative route.
